Last week, Bill McRae didn't realize that Veterans Day was just around the corner, but he's lost track of time before.

Years ago in Iceland, he served with an Air Force rescue unit. During the unending sunlight in that part of the world, troops put aluminum foil over the windows to sleep while the days seemingly ran into each other.

During white-out blizzards, they walked from the mess hall to the barracks along a rope strung between the two buildings.

"Actually," he says, "Iceland wasn't too bad."

Winter is less welcome now that McRae is homeless.

"As long as it don't rain, and no wind, I'm good to go," he said. "But that wind is cold."

The National Coalition of Homeless Veterans estimates that between 529,000 and 840,000 veterans are on the street at some point, about 23 percent of the homeless population.

Nearly half are Vietnam-era veterans like McRae, who is 56 years old and entered the military in 1971, although he never served in Southeast Asia.

Last week, Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki pledged to end veterans' homelessness in five years with a $3.2 billion plan. No veteran, he said, "should be living on the street without care and without hope."

For veterans like McRae, care and hope are in short supply.

'I screwed up'McRae is a friendly man whose hat bears the slogan, "Relax, God is in control." He does not blame others for ending up on the streets of Hampton.

After leaving the Air Force, he worked with his father in hotel maintenance in Virginia Beach. They were a two-man team until his father decided to move to Florida. McRae stayed in Hampton Roads.

"I was having a good time as a head maintenance man, but I screwed that up," he said, referring to his drinking.

He got another hotel maintenance job with his own room, kitchen and bath.

"I messed that up because I had three or four girls I was fooling around with at the same time," he said. "One would leave and the other would come in. The girl I wanted to be with, she was married and she found out I was going with the three other girls."

Told that his life might make a good country and western song, he laughed out loud.

"If I could sing, I would," he said.

Hire me?James Arthur Dixon, 53, is another homeless veteran and a friend of McRae's. As McRae talks, Dixon sidles up and smiles.

He leans over and says, "I go berserk if I don't take my medication, don't I, Bill?"

Dixon said he served in the Navy from 1973 to 1977 and did two tours in Vietnam. Now he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and lives on a $987 monthly disability check, which he received after hurting his back while working in construction.

He said he has been diagnosed with PTSD and takes medication, but he's not being compensated for living with the disorder.

He would like a job. For now, he's living under a bridge.

"I'm disabled, I'm 53 years old, ain't nobody going to give me a job," he said. "I put in application after application. Now you got to put them in across a computer. I don't even know how to work 'em."

Then he laughs.

"I know how to turn 'em on and shut 'em down — with a ball-peen," he said.

Dixon said there is marked difference in how Vietnam veterans were treated after coming home compared to today's Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans.

After he got out, he couldn't discuss his Vietnam service because it was classified. Today, he doesn't even like to watch war movies.

"I had to regress," he said.

Housing is keyBoth Dixon and homeless vet Robert Mitchell, 52, have ideas for Shinseki as he seeks to eliminate homelessness among veterans.

"Put more vet houses up," said Dixon. "Pay us more for what we done, and we could live on our own."

Mitchell served in the Marines from 1974-77 and said he has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which makes it difficult to deal with others and hold down a job.

He said veteran day centers are a good idea, and he becomes animated while describing it.

"If you had a center where you could draw people in — because they'll come out of the cold — I could get you in my office and you could tell me what your problem is," he said. "A lot of these guys should be getting money but they don't know how to get it. A lot of people just don't have that get up and go."

Mitchell said organizers could keep track of who comes and developer a roster. "I can't actually say how it could be arranged," he said, "but I know it would be better than this."